2 Sentenced Over Pig Head Attack on Mosque

A court in St. Petersburg has sentenced two men for trying to put a hoax bomb and a pig's head on the gates of a mosque in the city during morning prayer in November 2012, a news report said.

Vladimir Smirnov will receive 5 1/2 years in prison while Igor Yesbotayev received one year of corrective labor, with 10 percent of his paycheck going directly to the government for inciting hatred and the humiliation of a religious group.

Smirnov was detained at the scene of the crime, while Yesbotayev's was apprehended in the course of the preliminary investigations, Interfax reported. Both men pleaded guilty.

Smirnov had previously been in trouble with the law for crimes of violence, hate crimes and arms offenses, the local branch of the Federal Security Services said.

The verdict stated that "Smirnov and Yesbotayev, in a place with a massive collections of Muslims" placed their bomb with "the goal of inciting hatred between those professing Islam and those of other faiths." The offense given by the fake bomb may have been particularly acute given the Muslim prohibition on pork.